Finding Content in the Catalog

MathMatize gives you a few different ways to find exercises, and the fastest path is to start in the right catalog.

• Use Community Exercises to browse published exercises from the broader MathMatize community.
• Use My Exercises to find the exercises you created, including drafts and unpublished work.
• Use your own custom catalogs to organize the exercises you own into smaller collections for a course, unit, textbook, or team workflow.

The most important thing to remember is that search and filters work inside the catalog you currently have open. If you are not finding what you expected, switch catalogs first and then search again.

Catalogs at a Glance

Community Exercises

Community Exercises is the shared catalog for published content. When an exercise is published, it becomes eligible to appear here, which makes this the best place to explore exercises created across the MathMatize community.

Community Exercises is intended for discovery and reuse. It is also the most restrictive catalog:

• Only published exercises appear here.
• The Content State filter does not appear here because everything in this catalog is already published.
• Access to Community Exercises is currently reserved for verified instructors.

My Exercises

My Exercises is your personal working library. Every exercise you create belongs here, including exercises that are still in draft form.

This is usually the best catalog to use when you want to:

• Find something you recently created or edited.
• Search across your own drafts and published exercises.
• Filter by Content State to separate drafts from published content.
• Organize your work into additional catalogs.

Custom Catalogs

Custom catalogs help you organize the exercises you own. A custom catalog can stay private to you, or you can share it with collaborators when you want to work together.

These catalogs are useful when you want to group exercises by:

• course or section
• textbook chapter
• exam bank
• teaching team
• a short-term project or review set

Adding an exercise to a custom catalog is an organization step. It is separate from publishing.

• Publishing makes an exercise eligible for Community Exercises.
• Adding an exercise to a custom catalog places it into one of your own organized collections.

How Search Works

Search is designed to help you find exercises within the catalog you currently have open.

Use the search icon at the start of the search box to switch search modes.

Search scope

The search box does not search every catalog at once. It searches the catalog you are currently viewing.

• In Community Exercises, search only looks through the published exercises available in that catalog.
• In My Exercises, search looks through the exercises you own.
• In a custom catalog, search looks through the exercises in that catalog.

If you are sure an exercise exists but cannot find it, the first thing to check is whether you are in the right catalog.

What search looks at

Search primarily checks the exercise content itself. If you already know the exact exercise ID, you can also search by that exact ID to jump directly to the matching exercise.

If you want to narrow by topic instead of by words in the exercise, use the Tags filter rather than the search box.

Search modes

The catalog search includes three modes. The best one depends on whether you want the system to interpret the query for you or whether you want precise operator control.

Default

Default is the best choice for most searches.

• Each term you type is treated as required.
• Quotes, exclusions with -, and prefix matching with * are supported.
• This mode is designed to give predictable results without requiring you to write full boolean syntax yourself.

Use this when you already know the main words that should appear in the exercise.

Boolean

Boolean gives you more direct control over the query.

• You can use boolean-style operators such as +, -, *, <, >, ~, quotes, and grouping with ( ).
• This is useful when you want to fine-tune which terms matter most or write a more advanced search expression.
• Unlike Default mode, Boolean mode does not automatically rewrite the query for you.

Use this when you want power-user control over matching behavior.

Boolean operator reference

These behaviors apply to Boolean mode.

• + requires the next term or phrase to appear in matching results.
• - excludes the next term or phrase from matching results.
• * turns the preceding word into a prefix search, so it can match longer words that start the same way.
• > increases the importance of the next term or phrase, which can push matching results higher.
• < decreases the importance of the next term or phrase, which can keep it in the search without weighting it as strongly.
• A term with no operator is optional in Boolean mode: a result can still match without it, but results that contain it may rank higher. This is different from Default mode, where plain terms are treated as required.
• ( ) groups part of the query so operators can apply to that group together.
• ~ marks a term as unwanted without fully excluding it. Results containing that term can still appear, but they may rank lower.

Examples:

• +derivative -graph integr*
• calculus >derivative <limit
• +(algebra geometry) -graph
• trig ~graph

Natural Language

Natural Language is better for broader topic searches.

• The system treats your query more like ordinary language.
• Results are ranked by natural-language relevance rather than by explicit operator rules.
• This mode is useful when you are exploring a topic and want the search engine to infer which results are most related.

Use this when you want broader relevance ranking instead of strict term-by-term matching.

Basic search

Typing a word or short phrase will look for exercises that contain those terms.

Examples:

• quadratic
• integration by parts
• sine rule

When search can use full-text ranking, the most relevant matches appear first. When it falls back to simpler text matching, the newest matching exercises appear first.

Exact phrase search with quotes

Use quotation marks when you want words to stay together as a phrase.

This works best in Default and Boolean mode.

Examples:

• "chain rule"
• "completing the square"

This is helpful when the same individual words appear in many exercises, but the exact phrase is more specific.

Excluding words with -

Add a minus sign before a term to exclude exercises containing that word.

This works best in Default and Boolean mode.

Examples:

• limits -derivative
• "implicit differentiation" -trig

This is useful when a search term is broad and you want to remove one common type of result.

Prefix matching with *

Add * to the end of a word root to match words that start with that root.

This works best in Default and Boolean mode.

Examples:

• integr*
• polyn*
• deriv*

This works best when the root has at least three characters.

Combining search techniques

You can combine plain terms, quoted phrases, excluded terms, and prefix matching in one search.

This style of query works best in Default and Boolean mode.

Examples:

• "partial fractions" rational
• deriv* -implicit
• "unit circle" trig -graph

A note on very short search terms

Very short terms still work, but they are handled more simply than longer search terms. In practice, you will get the best results from:

• specific keywords
• exact phrases in quotes
• three-or-more-character roots when using *

Available Filters

The available filters depend on the catalog you are viewing and, in a few cases, on your role.

Tags

Tags help you narrow results by topic or concept.

• Use tags when you know the subject area but not the exact wording inside the exercise.
• You can select more than one tag.
• Broader tag choices can include exercises filed under more specific sub-tags beneath them.

Tags are usually the fastest way to browse a large catalog before you add a text search.

Randomized only

Turn on Randomized only to show exercises that include randomized variables or randomized values.

Use this when you want exercises that can produce variation across attempts instead of always showing the exact same numbers or setup.

Content State

The Content State filter appears outside Community Exercises.

Use it when you want to separate:

• draft exercises you are still editing
• published exercises that are ready for wider use

This filter is especially useful in My Exercises, where both drafts and published exercises may appear together.

Exercise Type

Use Exercise Type when you want a specific interaction format, such as fill in the blank, drag and drop, multiple select, formula tap, and other exercise formats available in the platform.

This is helpful when you are building a set that needs a particular kind of student interaction.

Difficulty

Use Difficulty to narrow the catalog to the challenge level you want.

This is useful when you are building material for review, practice, or assessment and want to keep the difficulty range consistent.

Organizing Your Own Exercises

The simplest workflow is:

1. Create or duplicate an exercise.
2. Find it in My Exercises.
3. Publish it if you want it to become eligible for Community Exercises.
4. Add it to one or more custom catalogs if you want to organize it for your own use or for collaboration.

Start in My Exercises

My Exercises is the home base for content you create. If you are building new material, saving drafts, or revisiting older work, this is usually where you should begin.

Publish to reach Community Exercises

Publishing is what makes an exercise eligible for Community Exercises. If an exercise is still a draft, it stays in My Exercises and will not appear in the community catalog.

Create catalogs to organize your library

Once your exercises are in My Exercises, you can create additional catalogs to keep them organized.

Common uses include:

• one catalog per course
• one catalog per chapter or unit
• a shared team catalog for co-authors
• a private catalog for works in progress

Private and shared catalogs

You can use custom catalogs as personal organization spaces, or you can share them with collaborators when you want a group to work in the same collection.

That means a good pattern is:

• keep rough drafts and early sorting in My Exercises or in a private catalog
• share a catalog when the content is ready for team collaboration

Organizing exercises you do not own

Custom catalogs are built around exercises you own. If you find something useful elsewhere and want to organize it inside your own catalog structure, duplicate it into your library first and then organize it from My Exercises.

Tips When You Cannot Find Something

• Check the selected catalog first.
• Clear filters and run the search again.
• In My Exercises, use Content State to check whether the item is still a draft.
• In Community Exercises, remember that only published content appears there.
• If you know the exercise ID, search for the exact ID.
• If your keyword search is too broad, add quotes, an exclusion with -, or a prefix with *.

FAQ

Why can I find an exercise in My Exercises but not in Community Exercises?
The most common reason is that the exercise is still a draft. Only published exercises are eligible to appear in Community Exercises.

Why does search return different results after I switch catalogs?
Because search only looks inside the catalog you currently have open.

Should I use search or tags first?
If you know the wording inside the exercise, start with search. If you know the topic but not the exact phrasing, start with tags.

I need more help.
Please contact questions@mathmatize.com, and we can help you find the right workflow.